Track Seventeen: Nisu

When Eli was first diagnosed with food allergies, baking was the hardest thing to relearn. I don’t know if you’ve tried your hand at vegan baking, but the results can be disappointing. A lot of the time, people will try it and say something like “it’s good for being vegan” but don’t really think about how we have to live with that recipe, possibly for the rest of Eli’s life. I sometimes wonder now if he passes milk and eggs what he will think of non-vegan treats or if the things we make now will still be his favorites. I have no idea. 

In the first year of his diagnosis, after several failed attempts at baking, I was given the very good advice to take a break from baking and focus on adjusting to our new way of living. I did this, and I can’t really remember now how long of a break I took, but at some point, we faced a food dilemma that was about more than food. 

My grandma is Finnish, and when I was a little girl, I associated her house with the smells of molasses cookies (my favorite) and Nisu. Nisu is a Finnish sweet bread meant to be paired with coffee. It has cardamom, sugar, and yeast! And unfortunately, a lot of milk and eggs. It is a family tradition to teach your children how to make it, from mixing and kneading, to learning a four strand braid to shape it. My grandma taught my, who taught me, and I had started teaching Steven. Up until Eli’s diagnosis, my mom and I made it every year together. 

That first year was pretty depressing, I remember just thinking he would never get to share in that part of my family heritage and tradition. After all, it is one thing to replace butter in a cookie and a whole different thing when half of the recipe needs to be altered. 

Enter my Aunt Sylvia, who came to visit us in Oregon (my mom and her family are from Maine!). She has an amazingly positive outlook and a “let’s just figure it out” attitude and when she came one of the things she wanted to try to make was Eli friendly Nisu. Aunt Sylvia, if you are reading this, I just want to say thank you. I really needed someone to just come along to make it, your sunny attitude and the resulting loaf of Nisu lifted my spirits when I was struggling so much with all of the changes of Eli’s diagnosis. It was a turning point for me, when I started trying to bake again. 

As with all recipes, we’ve tweaked and changed it. I use a bread machine for the mix and first rise, but each Christmas I make Nisu that Eli and my whole family can enjoy, and like the little Finn he is, he loves it and the taste of cardamom.